Mum was born to Kath and Ben Hornett on 23rd December 1933 in Luton. She was very proud of her role in helping her mum and older brother John, to bring up her 2 younger brothers Peter and Vic, and her sister Pat.
She was an active member of Limbury Baptist Church, and her beautiful singing voice won her many awards including the prestigious Eisteddfod Soloist Competition.
In 1954 she married Frank Bates, but was tragically widowed the following year whilst pregnant with her 1st child, Malcolm. She married Keith on the 10th August 1957 and in September 1958 the family was complete when their daughter Deb was born.
As a young family they moved to Toddington and set up home in Meadow Road. They were happy times filled with memories of family, fun parties (which many of you will remember), love and laughter.
Mum spoke fondly of her early days at Cartwright’s Dairy and when 1st married she ran her own shop in High Town, Luton. She was also a Wine and Spirits Supervisor for Tesco’s at Luton’s West Side for many years and a self employed merchandiser, until her retirement.
In 1977 Deb married and Gary was welcomed in to the family as a cherished son-in-law. With the birth of Ben in 1982, Chris and Keith became proud grandparents and again in 1988 with the birth of Malcolm’s daughter Kate.
Summers for the grandchildren were cherished times of long visits, with Katie remembering fruit picking and jam making, singing songs and learning to knit and memories of one particular "summer's" day, sitting in the car at the seaside with the rain pelting at the windscreen, eating nanny's special corned beef sandwiches. Ben will always remember his nan as "the best sausage roll maker in the World", and the Nanny Chris who always seemed to know everything about the things that nan's shouldn't know about.
One of Mum's biggest pleasures were the holidays that she so enjoyed with family and friends. Malta was one of Dad and Mum's favourite places but they holidayed throughout the UK and abroad. There were particularly memorable trips with Deb and Gary to Devon,Tunisia and Menorca, with family to Derbyshire for their 40th Wedding Anniversary and Colorado, to proudly attend Ben’s marriage to Katelyn, which took place in the Rocky Mountains in 2003.
Mum and dad finally made their home in Attleborough and visits to the Cromer Show and eating fish and chips while enjoying the Norfolk coastline, added such pleasure to their retirement days together, which were so very precious.
Sadly, in April 2010 Mum was diagnosed with an aggressive form of lung fibrosis but against all the odds she made it home from hospital. When her condition worsened in the Autumn both Dad and Mum went to stay with Malcolm in Nottingham. November saw a wonderful family reunion with a visit home from the States by Ben & Katelyn being made even more special with the news that a new member of the family, a great granddaughter, would be arriving at the end of July 2011.
Mum, was a strong and determined lady and throughout her illness fought hard to stay with us. Sadly at 6pm on Saturday, 5th February 2011 she slipped away at Malcolm’s home.
No-one that knew her could possibly ever forget how she touched their lives. Whether as a wife, mum, mum-in-law, nan, sister, sister-in-law, cousin, auntie or friend, Mum was remarkably loyal, incredibly happy and totally loved. She will be missed more than she could ever have known.